Conventionally, a visual inspection apparatus is used for inspecting an appearance of a product in a manufacturing processes. In the conventional visual inspection apparatus, a visual image of an appearance of a product is taken by a camera using an image acquisition device such as a CCD (Charge Coupled device), and an image data corresponding to the visual image of the product outputted from the camera is processed by following a predetermined visual inspection program so that it is judged whether the appearance of the product satisfies a predetermined quality or not.
Prior to the actual visual inspection of the products, the visual inspection program and the parameters are adjusted in a manner so that the appearance of the products are precisely judged as defective or non-defective by using sample image data of defective units and non-defective units which are previously prepared by a user of the visual inspection apparatus.
There are infinite varieties in the products to be inspected, so that inspection items, inspection methods, and inspection parameters cannot be standardized. Thus, the visual inspection program generally has an exclusive use with respect to each product to be inspected. When the kind of the product to be inspected is changed, it is necessary to prepare a new exclusive visual inspection program suitable for inspecting the new product. Furthermore, it demands an expert knowledge with respect to a computer such as the C-language to program the visual inspection program, so that the visual inspection program is generally programmed by a programmer in a vendor of the visual inspection apparatus.
On the other hand, the Publication Gazette of Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Sho 63-191278 shows a conventional user support method in an interactive image processing system by which the user unaccustomed to the image processing algorithm can easily execute the image processing. In the interactive image processing system, the know-how of an expert in the art of the image processing with respect to the usage or the operational specification of the image processing algorithms is memorized in a memory. When the user is required to select a sub-function of the image processing or to set a parameter while the image processing algorithm is executed, the user is supported by displaying the explanation of judging standard for selecting the sub-function or the parameter on a monitor display, or supported by automatically selecting the sub-function or the parameter by using the know-how of the expert in the memory.
The conventional user support method can support the user exactly for selecting the most suitable sub-function or parameter in the image processing. It, however, is difficult to support the user of the visual inspection apparatus for programming the visual inspection program easily, even when the conventional user support method is applied to the method for forming the visual inspection program. Since the visual inspection program has substantially the exclusive use with respect to the product to be inspected, the know-how of the expert can only be applied to a specific case. Thus, it is substantially impossible that the user unaccustomed to the expert knowledge of the computer can easily program the visual inspection program suitable for the visual inspection of the desired product.
Furthermore, when the product to be inspected is changed, the image data to be processed in the visual inspection program will be different at all. If the inspection parameters used in the visual inspection program are not based on the actual image data of the product to be inspected, the reliability and the precision of the visual inspection will be reduced. Still furthermore, if the inspection result by the image processing steps in the visual inspection are not previously confirmed, the results of the visual inspection becomes unreliable.